GRGR(30): Mannerism

[Dave Monroe]

You people all know way too much, perhaps for anyone's good.  But I do appreciate the
discussions, summaries, references, do send along any recommended reading, on or off list ...

David Morris wrote:

> >From: "Otto Sell"
> >so the info that the term was invented in 1965 by Mr. André Chastel puzzled
> >me.
>
> Sorry if this bores.  It is not off-topic, as it relates to a larger
> perspective on the term "Post Modern.
>
> The above credit cannot be literal, but it may be more informative than the
> literal: "The mannerist style became popular around 1520, and was over by
> about 1590. It was so named from the term "maniera" used by Vasari (1550) in
> a positive way to describe the most truly Renaissance style of art."
> <http://www.televisual.it/uffizi/manneris.html>
> This early usage of the term, coined in the middle of the era it described,
> did not likely include the connotations and insight that we presently bring
> to the post-High-Renaissance, Pre-Rococo period.
>
> Likewise, the "mannerist" eras in book you mention seem to have a very
> tenuous relation to the present-day use of the term.  It would be helpful to
> know what he intends by the term:
>
> >Hocke takes a much wider approach, speaking of at least five important
> >European periods of manieristic artistic expressions:
> >[1] Alexandria (350-150 BC)
>
> I plead ignorance on any details of this era.
>
> >[2] the *Silver Latinity* in Rome (14-138)
>
> Hocke probably uses the term "manierist" here in the sense that
> architectural styles from other lands were widely and consciously
> appropriated:
>
> This era begins with Nero and ends with Hadrian.  Both were passionate
> "architects" and both loved the artistic influences of the East.  Nero's
> "Golden House" (150 rooms - now opened for the first time in 18 yrs after a
> major renovation) was the work of his lifetime, sprawling over a vast area
> of Rome (which sprawl angered many, as private lands were swallowed up by
> Nero for his palace - prompting the rumor that he set fire to Rome out of
> land-greed).  Many of its additions were in styles "imported" from distant
> lands.
>
> Likewise Hadrian's Villa (also builder of the Pantheon)
>
> http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp./org/orion/eng/hst/roma/adriana.html
> http://rubens2.anu.edu.au/cgi-bin/david/mkmap/htdocs/bytype/prints/piranesi/0011/1175.JPG
> http://www.ib.hu-berlin.de/~wumsta/Milkau/73-2.jpg
> http://members.aol.com/zorzim/index.htm/page9.htm
>
> was a rambling compound, atop a hill in Tivoli, and base on architecture he
> admired in his travels.
>
> >[3] the conscious manieristic epoch of 1520-1650
> >[4] Romanticism, esp. from 1800-1830 [5] "present" period which he dates
> >from 1880-1950.
>
> Although I'm familiar with the architecture of these last two eras (which
> curiously are continuous except for a 50 yr gap), I'm at a loss to see how
> these could be conceptually unified
> into a "manierist" framework.
>
> David Morris
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